Ubuntu 19.04: can't update because `libcupsfilters1` is not configured

Question

I recently upgraded to Ubuntu 19.04 (4.15.0-48-generic) from 18.04. Since then I can't upgrade, because apt cannot configure libcupsfilters1.

I tried:

• to remove and/or reinstall the package
• apt-get install -f
• run autoclean, autoremove
• tried to install with dpkg

nothing worked so far. Google search is not helping much, since it's not finding the package name somehow.

Edit: requested output of sudo dpkg --configure -a

dpkg: error processing package libcupsfilters1:amd64 (--configure):
 package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should
 reinstall it before attempting configuration
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libcupsfilters-dev:amd64:
 libcupsfilters-dev:amd64 depends on libcupsfilters1 (= 1.20.2-0ubuntu3.1); however:
  Package libcupsfilters1:amd64 is not configured yet.

dpkg: error processing package libcupsfilters-dev:amd64 (--configure):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
 libcupsfilters1:amd64
 libcupsfilters-dev:amd64

Answer 1

Since the other errors talk about a package (libcupsfilters1) being unconfigured, let's configure it:

sudo dpkg --configure libcupsfilters1

In this case, that output gives us the answer:

dpkg: error processing package libcupsfilters1:amd64 (--configure):
package is in a very bad inconsistent state; you should
reinstall it before attempting configuration

It's easy to reinstall a package using apt:

sudo apt install --reinstall libcupsfilters1